Contraception Controversy? What Controversy?

By Ashley Judd, Guardian UK

10 July 12

Every day women are dying because they can't access family planning. A London summit aims to change that.

he 2012 London Olympic Games will mark the first time in history that women are competing in all 26 sports. Among the roster are women like Maziah Mahusin, the first female Olympian ever from Brunei, and Kenya's Mary Keitany, the winner of the 2012 London Marathon. Their success demonstrates what is possible when women and young girls are given the opportunity to realise their talents and their dreams.

I find an interesting connection between the Olympics and another important international event taking place in London: the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning.

Co-hosted by the British government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the goal of the summit on 11 July is to stimulate political and financial investment, to provide 120 million women around the world with safe, voluntary contraceptive products, information and services. As Melinda Gates has rightly stated, it is time to lift the "controversial" veil off the word "contraception" and put the subject squarely where it belongs - at the centre of the global health, economic, environmental and human rights agenda. In doing so, we will give women in every country the opportunity to become the next world famous Olympian, or doctor, or teacher - wherever their dreams lie.

In my travels with PSI, a global health organisation on whose board I serve and that partners with both UKAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, I learned exactly the harrowing impact the "controversy" around contraception has had on women, couples and families. On a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a village outside Kinshasa, I spent a day with Therese, Victor and their six children. They talked about the path they charted together, as parents and partners. They weren't aware of family planning, let alone their options. What they did know was the chronic, grave toll that ongoing unintended pregnancies took on Therese's body, as well as on their ability to support their children economically.

Therese resorted to ingesting poisonous herbs, based on vague anecdotal directions, trying to terminate three pregnancies - leaving her in agonising, life-threatening pain. Today, they have access to safe methods and can plan the family they desire. They have imparted this knowledge to their sons and daughters.

Therese and Victor's story is as common as it is painful to read. When we better support health programmes that give Therese, and millions of women like her, voluntary access to modern family planning, we help reduce the incidence of unsafe abortion, we improve her health and we enable her to better care for and educate her children. We build healthier families and communities. Where is the controversy?

Now is the time to act. Every two minutes, a woman dies in pregnancy-related complications, and it should scandalise us that 99% of such deaths occur in the developing world, particularly in rural areas. Despite these statistics, international support for family planning continues to wane. Between 1995 and 2007, financial investment in family planning programmes fell by 65% - from $980m to $340m.

By 2020, if an additional 120 million women and couples are given access to desired contraception options, 200,000 fewer women and girls will die in pregnancy and childbirth and 50 million abortions will be prevented.

Reaching this goal depends on all of us working together. On Tuesday evening, I will join PSI and the London School of Economics for a public discussion on voluntary family planning. We'll talk about the role that everyone, in governments in both the developed and developing world, private companies, civil society organisations, journalists and students can play. If you can't be there in person, share your comments and questions on #nocontroversy.